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South Africa is setting refugee camps for tens of thousands of people forced from their homes in xenophobic violence.

Almost 20,000 were living in makeshift shelters in Cape Town alone in South Africa’s prime tourist city.

Now the gtovernment is having to organise semi-permanent accommodation for people who have not fled back to their homelands.

President Thabo Mbeki has described the attacks which have left more than 50 people dead as an “absolute disgrace.”

Impoverished neighbours like Mozambique and Malawi have organized the mass repatriation of their citizens from South Africa.

Some 27,500 Mozambicans had returned home, although the influx was slowing from last week’s peak, officials said.

Even Somalis, many of whom have been in South Africa for years, said they wanted to return to their lawless country, which doesn’t even have a functioning central government.

“I want to die in my country. It’s better than here,” said Hassan Abdullah Ahmed, who waited to be registered at the Soetwater camp, a popular picnic area that is one of six designated “safety sites” in Cape Town.

Conditions at Soetwater were generally good, but refugees at some of the other sites complained of cold, unsanitary conditions.

Human rights activists warned of a growing risk of diseases such as diarrhea.

Some South Africans accuse foreigners of taking scarce jobs and houses.

But political and security leaders say that much of the violence and the looting – especially in Cape Town – was the work of common criminals.